Stats, profile letters and “the list”, Oh My!

The Coast Guard community is buzzing with recent news of advancement information that has recently come out. Spouse forums, listservs, association meetings, and the like, are lit up with requests and questions such as “please send me an email with the stats”, and “what does my spouse’s placement on the list really mean?” You can feel the excitement and anxiety, just by reading various threads and listening to people talk. It reminds me so much of dreamsheet time, the timeframe when orders are cut, OCS list publication time, officer promotion lists, and Warrant Officer announcements. Still, what it all boils down to is hurry up and wait. You know the drill.

We get eager for what is about to come down the pike. We wait. We lose sleep over it. We stop eating. We binge eat. We run to calm our nerves. We chat about it. We research. We are consumed with it all. So much that is released in a single message or even over the telephone through a detailer dictates our lives. Sure, we may try to act nonchalant and pretend it does not matter. Some of us have a façade about going through the mundane of our day-to-day activities. Still, in the back of our minds, what the Coast Guard decides for our spouse greatly impacts us wife/husband; even if we are talking about a dual active duty couple. We are itching to know what comes next. We have to know.

Why do we have to know? Perhaps for you it means the upcoming cuts means a short-tour or maybe your neighbor know has PCS orders and should be researching elementary and high schools for their kids. For someone else, it means possibly having to relocate their civilian job or maybe even give their two weeks (or 6 months) notice. Deny it all you want, but the Coast Guard has us so spun up throughout the year, all because of what comes through to the masses in the way of messages.
I have to be honest; I routinely read internet published ALCOASTS. I swear—I try not to be that wife. I am just keenly interested in what is going on in the Coast Guard world, because despite the fact that I was not issued in the man in blue’s sea bag, it is my world too.

So, what has got you hopping up and down excited right now in the CG world? Or, maybe something has you biting your nails anxiously. Tell us about it!